University of Colorado Associate Professor of Integrated Physiology Rodger Kram, left, holds a prosthetic leg similar to the one used by Olympic runner Oscar Pistorius while Assistant Research Professor and Research Scientist with the Denver Veterans Affairs Alena Grabowski holds another type of prosthetic used for normal activities in July, inside the Locomotion Lab in the Clare Small building on the CU-Boulder campus.
Jeremy Papasso/ Colorado Daily
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JEREMY PAPASSO
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A University of Colorado researcher who helped South African double-amputee Oscar Pistorius get to the Olympics last year reacted to today's news that the track star is facing murder charges by saying, "Regardless of who pulled the trigger or why, the world has too many gunshot victims."

Pistorius, a Paralympic champion and the first double-amputee track athlete to compete in the Olympics, was charged with the murder of his girlfriend, who was shot inside his home in South Africa, the Associated Press reported Thursday.

CU professors Alena Grabowski and Rodger Kram joined a team of researchers in 2008 who helped convince the Court for Arbitration in Sport that Pistorius's twin prostheses -- which gained him the nickname "Blade Runner" -- did not give him an advantage over non-amputee athletes.

"I have nothing to add, I know nothing about the situation, other than what has already been reported," Kram wrote in an email Thursday. "Regardless of who pulled the trigger or why, the world has too many gunshot victims."

Grabowski wrote in an email on Thursday that "I share Rodger's sentiment and have nothing to add."

Since the research and court hearings in 2008, Kram said that they have exchanged a few emails with the athlete.

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